Darren Haynes stopped into Donut Island on Tuesday to buy a smoothie, but he also purchased something he said he buys multiple times a week – a lottery ticket.

This week, however, Haynes, 39, of Bellflower said he had more reasons to buy a ticket. He’s seeking the $400 million jackpot in today’s Powerball drawing, which lottery officials say is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot and the sixth-highest lottery prize of all time.

Though he buys tickets from multiple locations, Haynes hopes buying from Donut Island, where a man bought a winning Scratchers ticket worth $3.25 million in October, will increase his odds.

“I hope it helps,” he said as he was about to buy a ticket, one of three he planned to buy for the day. “But different places have different odds. It’s just different atmospheres at different places.”

Huong Thai, 42, manager of Donut Island near Long Beach Airport, said business has picked up since it sold the winning ticket, and the shop used its $16,250 bonus from selling the ticket to pay bills.

“Some people have been buying $100 or $200 worth of tickets at a time this week,” Thai said.

Haynes said that if he won the drawing, he would pay off his bills and debts and help out his immediate family.

He said he has played the lottery for nine years and estimates he has spent $1,000 on tickets. He said he buys at least five tickets a week but has won only small amounts on Scratchers.

Barakat Alkoud, 50, owner of Dick’s Palm Tree Liquor in East Long Beach, which sold a winning ticket worth about $370,000 in August, said he has seen more people buying lottery tickets since the Powerball jackpot was announced.

“When jackpots get announced, it always gets busy,” he said. “It gets so busy one day before the drawing. People think that since we sold a winning ticket last year, they have better chances here. When you sell more, there’s more chance to win.”

Alkoud said many of his customers buy tickets in bulk for lottery pools at work.

No one matched all six numbers for Saturday’s $330.8 million drawing, pushing the jackpot to at least $400 million, or $227.8 million in a lump sum.

The jackpot could climb beyond $400 million if lottery ticket sales remain brisk, said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the California Lottery Commission. California is among 43 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, participating in Powerball.

Staff Writer Scott Schwebke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.